ASTANA, Kazakhstan, July 5, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A central Asian alliance that includes Russia and China called for the US and coalition members occupying Afghanistan to set a date for withdrawing from member states, reflecting growing uneasiness over America's regional military presence.

Alliance members Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan both host US bases whose troops are involved in Afghanistan.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), at a summit in the Kazakh capital, said in a declaration that a withdrawal date should be set in light of what it said was a decline of active fighting in Afghanistan, the Associated Press reported Tuesday, July 5.

"We support and will support the international coalition which is carrying out an anti-terror campaign in Afghanistan, and we have taken note of the progress made in the effort to stabilize the situation," the declaration said.

"As the active military phase in the anti-terror operation in Afghanistan is nearing completion, the SCO would like the coalition's members to decide on the deadline for the use of the temporary infrastructure and for their military contingents' presence in those countries," the declaration added.

Both Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan are former Soviet republics that Moscow regards historically as part of its sphere of influence.

The Kremlin did not object when those states agreed to host US troops following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

However, the statement appears to reflect growing uneasiness with the US presence and increasing concerns that the United States is encouraging the overthrow of Central Asia's authoritarian governments.

Earlier Tuesday, leaders at the summit vowed to step up security cooperation and accused unnamed "outside forces" of trying to destabilize Central Asia, according to the AP.

Their statements follow the violently suppressed uprising in eastern Uzbekistan in May and the March turmoil in Kyrgyzstan, when demonstrators stormed the presidential offices and sent the president fleeing into exile.

"We have to make every effort to step up security cooperation or else all our talks about stability will be pointless," Chinese leader Hu Jintao said at the summit.

"New regional threats are of a trans-border nature. ... There are people who place orders and execute them. Our task is to find them and render them harmless and also to prevent their activity," Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

Islam Karimov, the authoritarian president of Uzbekistan, said what he called “radical Islamists” are among the forces seeking instability in Central Asia.

Uzbekistan was widely denounced abroad for the harsh suppression of the May uprising in the city of Andjian, in which Uzbek authorities say 176 people died but rights activists say as many as 750 may have been killed.

However, both Russia and China expressed support for Uzbek authorities at the time.

Coinciding with the declaration, Afghanistan Tuesday condemned the killing of up to 17 civilians in a US airstrike, and a senior US defense official confirmed the deaths of two Navy SEALS that were missing in action in the country's northeast, AP said.

The airstrike came Friday in Kunar province, which borders Pakistan, the same area where a US transport helicopter was downed late last month, killing 16 troops in the deadliest single blow to American forces since they ousted the Taliban in 2001.

The civilians are the latest victims in an unprecedented surge of bloodshed that has left about 700 people dead since the US invasion-turned-occupation of the country.

Meanwhile, two members of the US Navy's elite special forces branch — known as SEALS — that were missing in Kunar have been found dead, a senior US defense official in Washington told AP Monday night.